American Cinematographer - October 2008 - (Page 48)

kisslite R Kingdom of Light LIGHTWEIGHT VERSATILE DESIGN Lina pauses to confirm she and Doon are heading in the right direction. • Fixed & rotating filter stages • Top & bottom French flags • 12Volt-40Volt input range • Wireless dimming CASINO ROYALE KITE RUNNER MAMMA MIA EASTERN PROMISES GOLDEN COMPASS Sales and Rental Worldwide US www.sl-x.us (818) 764 1313 online www.vfgadgets.com used wide-angle lenses — 14mm and 10mm — so you would truly feel the place,” says Grobet. “To keep our lights out of frame, Chuck came up with the idea of using the sorts of kitchen counters and countertop lighting fixtures you’d buy at Home Depot. We chose different fixtures for each set so they’d each have a distinctive feeling, and we hid the lights behind beams and in corners and stapled them to the ceiling. They enabled us to light certain sets where there was just no room at all.” At certain key points in the story, Ember’s generator loses power, and the citizens are plunged into darkness. Workers fire flare guns, which cast ominous shadows across Lina and other characters. “That’s a practical effect,” reveals Grobet. “We put a 20K on a crane and then swung the arm from side to side because we wanted to see shadows moving. We gelled the 20K with 1⁄4 Minus Green; my goal was to take the magenta out in post and give the blackout a weird, greenish, no-light look. I was constantly experimenting with different colors and effects.” The power-generator room was a partially built set; a greenscreen was positioned above it to facilitate a CG set extension. “I didn’t have much time to pre-light that set, and it was challenging because we were only working with certain pieces, like a small bridge over a river and the bottom of the generator,” recalls Grobet. “The concept drawings showed how it was going to look once the effects were finished, so we knew the finished set would be 50 times taller. We lit mostly from the roof and from cherry-pickers using space lights, 5Ks, Par cans and Kino Flos, and the art department also built practicals into the set, tungsten-based security lights. I used gels to create a saturated red light that appeared to be coming from nowhere.” With the city descending into darkness, it was often necessary for the characters to carry www.gekkotechnology.com 48 http://www.gekkotechnology.com http://www.sl-x.us http://www.vfgadgets.com http://www.gekkotechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2008

American Cinematographer - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note Short Takes: DirecTV's "Fourth Wall" Campaign Production Slate: Prison Break Production Slate: Need for Speed: Undercover Middle East Intrigue Kingdom of Light Memoirs of a Spook Landmark Gains Post Focus: An Overview of the ASC CDL Filmmakers' Forum: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Ross Berryman

American Cinematographer - October 2008

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